456: Chapter 456 A Phone Call from the Past

Hua Liuli frowned as well: "Whose call is it?"

"I don't know, it's an unknown number—"

Chen Yi stared at the screen, hesitated for a moment, and chose to answer.

Given his current strength, he wasn't afraid of any phone scams or threats.

"Hello?"

The voice coming from the other end of the line was somewhat strange.

It sounded like a mechanically processed voice, somewhat similar to the System's electronic voice, but it was clearly a male voice.

What caught Chen Yi's attention more was that the voice seemed to be mixed with faint electrical static, as if the signal was unstable.

"Is this Chen Yi?"

"Who are you?"

Being able to call his name directly and bypass all security protections to get through, the person on the other end was clearly no ordinary individual.

"Locke Kevin."

The mechanical voice paused, then added, "Also, the... creator of your Contracted Spirit Beast Lilian?"

"Lilian, creator? What do you mean?"

Chen Yi was stunned and instinctively looked at Lilian beside him. "Explain yourself, what creator?"

The mechanical voice on the other end seemed to let out a chuckle.

"Yes, she is indeed human, but her birth... was not entirely a natural process! Or rather, she is a work we meticulously designed long ago!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Yi's brows furrowed even tighter.

He knew about Lilian's past.

She had been an orphan since childhood, but she was lucky enough to always receive help and grew up without being abused.

Later, she awakened the Four Seasons Deer Bloodline. It wasn't until she contracted with him that, under the power of Spirit Beast Awakening, her true Bai Ze Bloodline was revealed, granting her the ability to foresee the future.

"That's not right!"

Chen Yi suddenly remembered something.

According to the basic Law of Bloodline theory in this world, the Bloodline Aptitude Rank of an infant descendant would not exceed three Ranks compared to their parents' generation.

Since Lilian possessed a hidden SSS-rank Bloodline of the Bai Ze, her parents' Aptitude surely couldn't be that bad.

But the problem was, ever since Chen Yi and his Contracted Spirit Beasts became famous, their information had long been dug up by intelligence agencies from various countries.

Any relatives or friends who should have come to claim kinship had basically already done so.

Only Lilian seemed to have no one contact her.

Chen Yi had once thought that perhaps both of Lilian's parents had passed away.

But Lilian herself often said that she always felt her parents were still alive.

She just didn't know why she had such a feeling.

At the time, Chen Yi guessed that perhaps Lilian was too young when she was abandoned and couldn't recognize them now.

But now, this person claiming to be Lilian's father had appeared, and he had even used such a bizarre term as "creator"?

"You say you are Lilian's father, what proof do you have?"

"Proof... I'll send it to you right now."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Yi's phone vibrated, and a new text message popped up.

Chen Yi opened the message and found a download link for an encrypted file inside.

He hesitated for a moment, then chose to download it.

He wasn't worried about any viruses or hacker attacks; anyway, there was no useful intelligence on his phone.

The file downloaded quickly, and upon opening it, it was a detailed research report.

Chen Yi quickly browsed through the file's content, and the more he read, the more shocked he became.

Lilian also leaned over to look, and when she saw those photos from her infancy, she froze completely.

The baby girl in the photos had the exact same light blonde hair and blue eyes as her. Although the infant's features hadn't fully developed, that familiar feeling made her almost certain—that was her!

"This... what is this?"

Chen Yi didn't answer but continued reading.

The latter half of the file was an abstract of a research paper.

The title was—Preliminary Study on the Influence of Soul Power on the Awakening of Descendants' Bloodline Aptitude.

The authors of the paper were—Locke Kevin and Hilofy Kevin!

And a story... recording the past!

---

Thirty years ago, inside a top research institute in Eagle Country.

Locke Kevin put down the microscope in his hand and rubbed his sore eyes.

The laboratory lights appeared exceptionally cold and white in the middle of the night, illuminating the dense data tables in front of him.

"Locke, haven't you rested yet?"

Hilofy Kevin walked in carrying a cup of hot coffee.

She had light blonde hair similar to Lilian's, and her blue eyes revealed the wisdom and gentleness of a scholar.

She was Locke's research partner and also his childhood sweetheart who had grown up with him.

"It's almost finished."

Locke took the coffee and took a sip. "Regarding the data analysis of sample No. 347, the results are very close to what we expected!"

Hilofy walked to his side and looked at the chart on the computer screen: "The correlation between the decay curve of Soul Power and the descendant's Bloodline Rank... this is already a very strong correlation!"

"Yes!"

Locke leaned back in his chair, looking excited. "Our hypothesis is very likely correct! A child's Bloodline Aptitude Rank is highly likely influenced by the father's Soul Power, rather than just being a random inheritance or a matter of probability."

Soul!

This was a concept proposed by Locke and Hilofy after years of research!

It was independent of Physique and spiritual power; it was a special kind of internal energy.

Every time a Beast Tamer contracted with a Spirit Beast Girl, a portion of their Soul would be shared;

And every time they let a Spirit Beast become pregnant and give birth, it would consume a vast amount of Soul!

This Soul Power was very likely the root source for communicating with ancient Spirit Beast Bloodlines and Awakening powerful strength.

"But the current mainstream view in academia is still that more children mean more blessings."

Hilofy sighed and said, "Most people believe that men should contract with multiple Spirit Beasts, and the more offspring they produce, the higher the probability of birthing powerful Bloodlines."

Locke shook his head: "That is a fallacy!"

"The thousands of research data points we have collected have already shown that unless the Beast Tamer themselves possesses a combat-type Aptitude, or has become exceptionally powerful through tempering their Physical Body with various heaven and earth spiritual treasures, most people—even if they have a dozen children—will not see their Bloodline Aptitude Breakthrough upward; instead, it will only get worse!"

"Look, the Beast Tamers in these 37 cases are all above S-Rank, have contracted more than five Spirit Beasts, and have produced more than six offspring!"

"But among their children, the S-rank Bloodline only appeared in the first two children; the subsequent children were all A-Rank or B-Rank!"

"And for these three S-rank Bloodline children, their father's calculated Soul Power value was at a relatively high level at the time of conception!"

"By the time the later children were born, the father's Soul Power had already significantly decayed!"

Once this research of theirs was published, it would completely overturn the existing Beast Tamer social System.

Those major Families that relied on having multiple wives and children to maintain their influence, and those Beast Tamers who believed that as long as they produced enough offspring they could give birth to a Genius, would all suffer a fatal blow.

But more importantly, they had also discovered another possibility!

If a couple could maximize the preservation and strengthening of their Soul Power and conceive in their optimal state, then the probability of birthing an offspring that surpassed the parents' Bloodline Rank would greatly increase.

Even... it was possible to give birth to the legendary SSS-rank Bloodline.